As part of a student-led campaign, members of a newly formed coalition at UCLA are pushing to pass a proposition in the upcoming midterm election that would reduce sentences for minor crimes.
UCLA student groups rallying around the Invest in Graduation Not Incarceration, Transform Education, or IGNITE, campaign held a meeting in Ackerman Union on Wednesday afternoon as a coalition for the first time. Undergraduate Students Association Council President Devin Murphy and other USAC members are heading the coalition at UCLA this year.
The University of California Student Association, which advocates for student issues on behalf of University students, launched IGNITE at the start of last school year.
“We want to keep students in school,” said UCSA President Jefferson Kuoch-Seng. “We aim to not waste prison spaces on low-level crimes.”
Proposition 47, if passed, would reduce prison or jail sentences for many inmates who are incarcerated for minor drug-related crimes and petty theft. The Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization working to reduce incarceration, estimates that the measure would save Los Angeles County between $99.9 million and $174.8 million a year as a result of having fewer people in prison.
The savings from the passage of the proposition would be allocated to the Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Fund, which would be created as part of the measure. The funds would be distributed to state agencies, such as the Department of Education and California Victim Compensation.
About a dozen representatives from the undergraduate student government and student groups, such as Amnesty International and Bruin Democrats, participated in the coalition meeting on Wednesday. At the gathering, students talked about ways to push for the passage of the proposition as a way to address high incarceration rates, especially among individuals from minority racial and ethnic backgrounds.
According to a study by the Public Policy Institute of California published in 2013, blacks in California were imprisoned at rates eight times higher than that of whites.
To help build momentum around the proposition, students said in the meeting that they hope to put on several events in coming weeks.
Bruin Democrat members plan to host a rally supporting the proposition on Oct. 22, said Aret Frost, a fourth-year political science student and president of the organization.
“Activism was lacking in the past couple of years,” Frost said. “This is a wonderful chance to work with groups and make some change.”
Law enforcement groups and victim advocacy groups have criticized the proposition, saying they think it will allow thousands of inmates with prior felony convictions to be released early.
“The act has unreasonably limited the scope of what is considered a risk of danger to society,” said the group Californians Against Proposition 47 in a statement.
The group also claimed in its statement that the proposition will force judges and prosecutors to free inmates who may not be ready to re-enter the general population. The proposition lessens sentences for certain crimes, such as theft of property worth less than $950 and the personal use of certain illegal substances.
Proposition 47 is one of many initiatives the IGNITE campaign is pushing for, including reforms to the University’s admissions policies and increasing support for the UC’s retention and community outreach programs.
IGNITE began a year ago when UCSA agreed at its summer congress to institute the campaign. In the past year, campaign members have seen the passage of some bills that they advocated for, including Assembly Bill 420 in September. The bill eliminates suspensions for children in grades K-3 for “willful defiance” in hopes of retaining more students in school.
Some students have voiced opposition to IGNITE because it calls for the passage of California Senate Constitutional Amendment 5, which would bring affirmative action back to the University. Affirmative action was banned in 1996 with the passage of Proposition 209.
Last October, USAC passed a resolution in support of the IGNITE campaign. At the council’s meeting, few USAC members voted against the measure, though some councilmembers voiced concerns about including language about SCA-5 in the resolution. Several councilmembers said they supported holistic admissions over affirmative action and were uncomfortable with the language, but other councilmembers said they saw SCA-5 as a critical part of the campaign and refused to amend the proposal.
Students involved in the campaign said it is not only about advocating for specific bills. Ultimately, the goal of the campaign is to have a more diverse student population and to promote activism, Murphy said.
The coalition plans to meet regularly in the future, Murphy said.